Microsoft Visual J++ conversion tools

[Luke Webber]

I've recently been working on a contract to convert a series of Visual
J++ applets to standard Java 1.6. In order to do so, I have developed a
converter program and a series of Swing subclasses which mimic the
behaviour of the WFC classes. While it's by no means complete, it does a
pretty bloody good job of converting all the generated code, and
allowing the custom-written code to run unmodified.

I've raised the possibility with my supervisor of open-sourcing these
tools, because I can see that others might well benefit from them, but
he seems less than sanguine that his boss will go for the idea. But if
it's not open-sourced I just know it'll never see the light of day after
this one small set of classes is converted. And that would be a criminal
waste.

Now the question. Just how much Visuall J++ code is out there, anyway?
How many people are caught with this crap and a need to move to Sun Java
and Swing?

If the consensus is that there are enough such to create a demand for an
open-source tool of this nature, I'll make my best effort to persaude
these guys to go along, and put it up as a SourceForge project. But if
not, I guess I'll just let it go.

Please respond to this post if you're aware of any J++ projects in need
of conversion. I'm not looking to drum up business, just wanting to
provide a free toolset that might be of general use.

Luke

 

[Oliver Wong]

I've recently been working on a contract to convert a series of Visual J++
applets to standard Java 1.6. In order to do so, I have developed a
converter program and a series of Swing subclasses which mimic the
behaviour of the WFC classes. While it's by no means complete, it does a
pretty bloody good job of converting all the generated code, and allowing
the custom-written code to run unmodified.

I've raised the possibility with my supervisor of open-sourcing these
tools, because I can see that others might well benefit from them, but he
seems less than sanguine that his boss will go for the idea. But if it's
not open-sourced I just know it'll never see the light of day after this
one small set of classes is converted. And that would be a criminal waste.

Now the question. Just how much Visuall J++ code is out there, anyway? How
many people are caught with this crap and a need to move to Sun Java and
Swing?

If the consensus is that there are enough such to create a demand for an
open-source tool of this nature, I'll make my best effort to persaude
these guys to go along, and put it up as a SourceForge project. But if
not, I guess I'll just let it go.

Please respond to this post if you're aware of any J++ projects in need of
conversion. I'm not looking to drum up business, just wanting to provide a
free toolset that might be of general use.

You might consider crossposting this to the Visual J++ newsgroups.

microsoft.public.java.visualj++
microsoft.public.java.visualj++.general
microsoft.public.visualj++.migration
microsoft.public.java.visualj++.dev.environment
microsoft.public.java.visualj++.wfc.general
microsoft.public.java.visualj++.wfc.controls
microsoft.public.java.visualj++.wfc.applications
microsoft.public.java.visualj++.wfc

(FWIW, they all seem to have pretty low activity)

- Oliver